Baylor's Goodson completes path from long shot to draftee as Packers select former basketball player in 6th round

Baylor cornerback Demetri Goodson celebrates after defeating Texas 30-10 for the Big 12 title in Waco on Dec. 7, 2013. Goodson had a reason to celebrate again Saturday when he was picked in the sixth round of the 2014 draft by the Green Bay Packers. (AP Photo/The Daily Texan, Charlie Pearce)

Baylor cornerback Demetri Goodson celebrates after defeating Texas...

He was freaking out. Then he just wanted to run around and scream.

For nearly three days and six rounds, Demetri Goodson went untouched. Cornerbacks were called out on national television, instantly becoming pros. Overall, 196 amateur athletes joined the NFL. All while Goodson waited for a call that was 25 years in the making.

With the No. 197 overall selection in the sixth round of the 2014 draft, the Green Bay Packers selected a cornerback from Baylor.

The 5-11, 194-pound athlete was once Gonzaga's starting point guard, author of a last-second, game-winning shot that sent the Bulldogs to the Sweet 16. The corner was a young man who had been a two-sport star at Spring's Klein Collins High School, temporarily quit football for good in 2005 and watched his father imprisoned for 27-plus years while an unpredictable life drifted farther and farther from home.

The young man was Goodson.

More Information

Part 7: The call

Demetri Goodson quit football after his sophomore year at Klein Collins, spent three years as a Gonzaga point guard, then started at cornerback for Baylor in 2013 during the Bears' best year in school history. Now, Goodson has completed his journey by being taken in the 2014 NFL draft - going from a borderline draftee to a third-day pick. The Houston Chronicle documented Goodson's four-month journey during an ongoing series.

With one phone call Saturday afternoon, it was all worth it. The life changes and his cross-country journey. The unknown and uncertainty that is starting and restarting in public view with no safety net. The understanding that if Goodson wasn't wanted by the NFL, Gonzaga to Baylor to pro football may have been as foolish as many believed just three years ago.

Promising fit

But Green Bay had believed in him. And Goodson was now officially a Packer.

Translator

To read this article in one of Houston's most-spoken languages, click on the button below.

"Man, it's the best feeling ever in the world," said Goodson, whose January-through-May draft journey has been documented by the Houston Chronicle in a series. "I can't stop smiling. I'm gonna run a couple laps and scream."

For a Packers team that ranked 24th out of 32 teams last season in pass defense and 25th in total defense, Goodson's hybrid attack is a promising fit.

For months, trainer Danny Arnold and agent Jeff Nalley pushed Goodson's dual-sport background to scouts, selling a prospect with an untouched football ceiling. Goodson went from unlisted on early mock drafts to the February scouting combine invite, then a standout showing at Baylor's March pro day. By early May, Green Bay was vying with almost half the league to determine the draft positioning of an unorthodox but intriguing prospect.

"I don't know how raw he is, but he's real instinctive," Packers cornerbacks coach Joe Whitt Jr. said on the team's website. "The things I saw on film were his ability to stick to his guy. He's really competitive; fights to the end on every play, trying to get the ball out. Those are things we can add to the defense and excite me about his game."

Goodson spent the weeks leading up to the three-day draft insisting he didn't have to be selected to find comfort in the NFL. He was already mentally prepared to become an undrafted rookie free agent, then earn one of 53 roster spots on a team out of training camp. But Goodson privately knew he'd sacrificed too much since trading Spring for Spokane, Wash., to fall short on the final day.

"I was about to lose my mind," Goodson said. "Because I was seeing corners go that I'm like, 'I am better than these guys.' "

Living the dream

With his incarcerated father, Michael, planning to watch as much of the draft as possible from Beaumont's low-security federal prison, a resilient corner who shook off two season-ending injuries in Waco discovered one team out of 32 NFL squads that wanted him. It was all Goodson had wanted to hear for years. Now, he had to tell his father he was a pro football player.

"Green Bay called me, and they were talking real slow. And then they were, like, 'Would you like to play for us?' " Goodson said. "And I was, like, 'Hell, yeah.' … Everything works out for the best. Green Bay only took one corner, so they want me. I'm going to a great, great franchise. I couldn't be any happier."